What the Spurs and Lakers said after Tuesday’s game

Here’s a sampling of what the Spurs and Lakers had to say after the Spurs’ 97-82 victory over the Spurs.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich

(On whether that was the kindof defense the Spurs need to play in order to compete)

“You hit the nail on the head. That was the most important part of the night for us. We played excellent team defense, and that’s where we’ve been lacking. It really made a big difference tonight against a very good basketball team. So, we were very pleased with the team defense and that’s what we have to take forward.”

(On being pleased with the defense on Kobe Bryant by George Hill and Manu Ginobili)

“They played him pretty wisely and they did a good job. But without the team defense behind it, they would of have had a lot tougher time. I’m going to credit the team with that.”

(On DeJuan Blair)

“DeJuan (Blair) was fantastic tonight on both ends of the court. I thought he showed a lot of poise and got some offensive boards and kicked it back out, as he should in certain situations. I think he’s looking more mature all the time.”

(On George Hill tonight)

“Well George Hill is basically our first sub most nights, he’s important to our depth. Because he’s not only the backup point guard, he plays good defense on top of good offense. He’s very valuable to us. He looks like he’s back in the groove and whatever little rust he may have acclimated is certainly gone.”

(On if DeJuan Blair is learning any tricks that can help him thrive in the NBA)

“They’re not really tricks; they’re basics of defensive basketball. He’s learning about different arrangements, doing his work early and understanding who he’s guarding, his position on the court. He’s becoming a little more efficient as far as fundamentals are concerned.”

(On Gary Neal)

“He knows what his skills are and he understands that if he’s open and doesn’t shoot it he’ll get no minutes. So, he knows he has to keep on plugging.”

(On what it says about the Spurs depth when the Spurs can win so easily with Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili scoring only 11 combined points)

“It means that Tony Parker was amazing tonight. DeJuan Blair did a fantastic job, but Tony Parker put us on his shoulders for a lot of the game. We played good defense to go along with it, so we were able to hang in there even though Manu and Timmy didn’t have their best offensive night.”

Spurs guard Tony Parker

(On his approach to the game)

“I tried to push the tempo and play faster because every time against L.A. last year when the put the defense half court, we had a hard time scoring. So I tried to get the pace a little bit faster and get easy shots. We got a ton of threes today. If we shot 30%, it would be a big win. It’s still a big win and we made big shots in the fourth quarter.”

(On if he tried to push the pace because of the Lakers’ size)

“Yeah, definitely. When the defense is set in the half court, it’s tough because they’re big and everybody’s in the paint so it’s tough to get some easy shots. I was trying to push the ball, be aggressive and make stuff happen.”

“We have a lot of guys playing well. George Hill played great, Gary Neal made some big baskets, DeJuan Blair was unbelievable. Our bench is playing well this year.”

(On DeJuan Blair)

“He played great, he was unbelievable. A lot of time, people think he’s too small, but he does so much other stuff. He plays with a lot of heart and does all the little stuff. Rebounding-wise, he was a monster tonight.”

(On San Antonio’s team defense tonight)

“Our team defense was great tonight, maybe our best game tonight. We held them to 80 or 82, it was our best defense by far. We need to take the game as an example and try to build on it.”

Spurs guard Manu Ginobili

(On the team defense tonight)

“Of course, it was a great job. We held them under 40%, I don’t know how many points they scored, but it was one of the best defensive efforts we’ve had. It’s not easy to contain Kobe. We made him take tough twos, that was one of the goals, and we didn’t foul him as much. Also, we contained the bigs pretty well. Pau [Gasol] is having a great season and he didn’t have a good game today, so it was a great overall performance.”

(On if they were able to disrupt Kobe Bryant with the steals)

“When the game started, I thought it was going to be a long night. He made the first four and they were pretty tough shots, but then I could bother him a little more on the catch. Kobe is not on one-on-one defense ever. You need the team to be there contesting and crowding the paint, so we did a great job in that regard.”

(On if this validates anything beating the two-time defending champion)

“It’s always great to beat the champion. You know that when you win the championship, you get a big target on your chest and everybody goes hard against you. It’s not easy to do, they have a lot of talent, they play hard, and they have size. Every time you attack the rim, you have a lot of players there, so it was very important for us to kick it right. It’s not easy to beat them. We played great defensively and it’s a great feeling.”

(On DeJuan Blair)

“He was huge. Sometimes we think that against teams like them, where they have 7-footers and a lot of size, he may struggle. But somehow, he finds a way, he gets those boards, and finds a way to finish at the rim. He’s got that kind of ability that’s not easy to find. For a 6-6, 6-7 guy, it was amazing. He was a big factor today.”

“I was just talking about that in the showers. We went 4-for-20 between Tim and me. First half, two points between us. We were sticking around, we were still there, so we knew we had a big shot at winning it. Not that the second half changed that much, but defensively we were there and Tony was great and we made a couple shots that changed the game.”

Spurs forward/center DeJuan Blair

(On being physical against the Lakers big players)

“Going up and just going against them and saying I’m going to get this rebound or I’m going to shoot this ball and not thinking. Tim and McDyess have been in my head and said to not think and just play basketball. That’s what I did tonight and I had an excellent game.”

(On George Hill and Kobe Bryant getting into it earlier)

That’s always a sign, but if that didn’t happen we still weren’t going to back down. It was just a wonderful booster to us and the fans. The fans were excellent tonight being in the game. It was just a hard tough hard-fought win and who would’ve known that our two best players didn’t have the best game and we’re up 15 at the end of the game. That tells a lot. That says a lot about our youth and our ability to play and step up when the best isn’t playing.”

(On if the team made a statement tonight)

“I hope we did, but we still have to play them a lot more times. We just have to keep playing and getting better every day. Every day counts from here on out. It’s still the beginning of the season. 27-4 is an excellent record but there’s a lot more we can improve in and once we get that down pact on defense and once our offense starts flowing like we really want it to, the sky’s the limit.”

Lakers coach Phil Jackson

(On what changed between the first and second halves)

“We had a lot of shots but we missed them. Ron had some threes and Kobe didn’t seem to get his shot down in the third quarter. Pau had one shot as I can’t remember any others he had in the third quarter. We just didn’t get any shots down as their defense activated. We had some turnovers as they ran off, scored, which got them excited. Blair also got some tip-ins around the basket.”

(On what did you think of Kobe tonight)

“I liked his energy to come out and set a tone. I thought in the fourth quarter he had a chance to get himself going again in the quarter, even though in 3rd quarter nothing seemed to go right for him.”

(On if he likes the idea of Kobe taking all of those shots in the start of the game)

“Well he came out with a purpose and established something. He took the first seven shots, six shots; made the first four, as then it was time to slow it down a bit and get everybody involved.”

(On why he thinks Pau wasn’t able to get involved as much)

“I think anytime you have Kobe taking the number of shots he had and pressing it a little bit will make Pau get out of the offense because of that.”

(On if Pau Gasol can demand the ball more)

“Even though I thought they fronted, they knocked the ball away, tipping the ball out. You know there were some things he didn’t do right, as he made some passes I thought he shouldn’t of made. He didn’t have a big game.”

(On if he has thought of telling Kobe maybe not to play so mad)

“No, he can do that. He is a willful guy and he can play with that energy. That’s one of the few guys that can do that in this league.”

(On after the last two losses, what do you take away from this game)

“I liked our plan, I thought we had a good plan going into this game. I just didn’t like the ability of the team to fulfill it and to stay with the ideas we had for the game. It was really bad defense, getting back and stopping the transition, and making them take shots that were tougher shots. We let them start looking at threes the second half, and they knocked them down.”

Lakers guard Kobe Bryant

(On his shooting)

“I got good looks, I just didn’t make them.”

(On the Lakers’ effort versus the last couple of games)

“The effort was there. It was much better. I couldn’t put the ball in the basket and it snowballed from there. It’s my responsibility to make them. I had some really good looks. I gotta put those down, period.”

(On trying to throttle back and get others involved in the game)

“You try to, but I had some easy looks that typically go down and they didn’t [tonight]. We weren’t able to get back in the game. Things just kind of fed off of me not being able to make shots and everybody else started not being able to make shots…missing free throws and layups and stuff like that. I just gotta put the ball in the damn hole. It’s my responsibility. It’s my job and I gotta do it.”

(On his extra intensity possibly throwing him off tonight)

“Not at all. That’s how you win championships. It’s about attitude and you just have to stick with it. It’ll be fine, we just gotta stick with it.”

(On playing mad again tomorrow against New Orleans)

“I’ve been playing mad as long as you’ve been writing mad.”

(On Los Angeles’ technical fouls)

“We’re all just a little moddy, that’s all. Fish picked up a technical tonight and he’s the basketball equivalent of Barrack Obama. Everybody’s a little moody right now.”

Lakers center Pau Gasol

(On the difference in the second half)

“We didn’t set the tone early like we did in the first quarter. We did a really good job of setting the tone and establishing the level of intensity that we wanted to play with early on, and we didn’t do it in the second half. They got going and had a really good quarter.”

(On exploiting the size advantage tonight)

“I don’t think we played the smartest game. Let’s put it that way. I don’t think we attacked smart out there. We have to recognize what’s going on and understand our strengths against certain opponents and try to exploit them.”

(On the Lakers’ three double-digit losses in a row)

“Whatever needs to be fixed, we have to do it all together. We don’t need individual effort from anybody. We have to be all together like a family.”

(On getting away from the post game in the third)

“I don’t think it was a conscious decision. We just did. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been smart to go away from something that was getting us to the line and adding fouls to them. It gets our offense going also because it gets us penetration. At one point we stopped moving the ball and had a lot of turnovers, and they took advantage of it.”

(On the Lakers’ sense of worry)

“I’m not worried; I’m just upset. I’m upset that we are not playing right. With the weapons we have on this team, it’s tough to come out of these games like we have. Everybody can have a bad game, but three consecutive losses, the way we’ve lost, it shouldn’t happen with this team. We have to look ourselves in the mirror and understand what’s going on. What are we willing to do to change it?”